


Now Hiring: A Tea Shop Tale

by Chaerring



Series: Sleeping With the Team Captains and Other Inappropriate Work Relations and Events [5]
Category: Marvel (Movies), Spiderman - Fandom, The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-26
Updated: 2012-05-26
Packaged: 2017-11-06 01:58:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/413456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaerring/pseuds/Chaerring
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter was staring up at the Avengers Tower from across the street, wondering if they had security measures to prevent wall-crawling visitors, when a neon painted sign in the window of a small building caught his eye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now Hiring: A Tea Shop Tale

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine!
> 
> Thank you so much to TheGreatSporkWielder for beta-ing even though this wasn't the next chapter of Patience or Linger.
> 
> Takes place in between chapters 1 and 2 of More Than a Little Patience.

Peter was staring up at the Avengers Tower from across the street, wondering if they had security measures to prevent wall-crawling visitors, when a neon painted sign in the window of a small building caught his eye. _NOW HIRING WAIT STAFF!_ was the obscenely bright declaration. Feeling a little more hopeful than he probably should have, Peter ducked into The Tea Shop, instantly feeling at home when he heard "Weird Science" of all songs playing from the speakers. A woman's cheery voice called out from the back.

"Be right there! Make yourself comfy!"

The sprinkling of couches and chairs against the walls and the plush looking stools under the tables certainly seemed conducive to making oneself at home. For a moment, Peter got that familiar tingling sensation like he was being watched or trouble was coming, but when he looked around, the sensation disappeared.

"Hey! What can I get you?"

Peter's attention was taken back towards the front counter by the return of the woman's voice. He felt his jaw drop, but he really couldn't help himself. The buxom woman behind the counter was a lot younger than he had assumed, probably only a couple of years older than himself, but he could clearly see the 'Manager Darcy' tag stuck to the tie of her apron. The apron itself was something to be impressed by. It was plaid in the worst possible way, teal and purple with eye catching yellow words that were obviously meant to draw attention to her chest and amplify the message _If you're going to stare, you should put extra in the tips jar_. Peter had the feeling he already owed her extra. 

He could feel his cheeks begin to heat when he finally drew his eyes far enough upward to look into her amused face and answer her question.

"Er...I'm Peter Parker, your sign says you're hiring?"

Her face lit up and she whirled around fishing for something in a drawer on the back wall. Then Peter found a small set of papers thrust into his face. He took them, going cross eyed trying to read the larger, bold print at the top.

"Awesome. I'm Darcy Lewis and I am indeed hiring, or rather the people who own The Tea Shop are hiring, I'm just the manager, so I get to scope you out, since apart from emergency help during rush hours and the fabulous clean up crew, I'm basically the only employee."

She flapped her hand at the papers he was still trying to get a handle on. He was pretty sure one of them was a gag order of some sort, and that was kind of alarming. 

"That's just paperwork, totally not the important part, Peter, right? You can set that aside for the moment. You won't even need to bother with it if you don't pass my interview."

Abruptly, Peter felt that this wasn't quite the normal after school and weekend job that he was looking for. His experience with trying to get hired at other places said: paperwork first, then if you were lucky, they called you for an interview. He wasn't sure if this reversal of events was a good thing or not.

"Er--"

"Don't worry; I'm not going to ask you to do physics equations or anything. I wouldn't be able to understand them even if I did."

Physics, Peter thought, would probably be easier than what she was wanting.

"Okay, so, I totally don't mean this in an offensive way, but you're obviously a bit of a geek right?"

"Is that relevant to the interview?"

She nodded earnestly.

"Oh, yeah. I get a lot of really hardcore geeks in here, like multiple science doctorate holding geeks. You have to know how to handle them and when they need to be cut off. Can you do that?"

Feeling a little bit out of his comfort zone, Peter nodded anyway. It wasn't like he wasn’t used to being pegged as a geek, but for once, the woman in front of him doing it seemed to honestly think it was a good thing.

"Excellent, same coin opposite side, there are a ton of jocks that come in here, too, but no worries, they're the nice scholarship-smart kind of jocks. Sometimes, if they've been working too long, they need to be cut off, too. Can you be polite about that and get it done or will you have some sort of bully induced trauma popping up every time one of them comes in?"

Peter's eyebrows were climbing off his face, he was certain. This was not what he was expecting at all, and he wasn't sure he should still be standing there answering her incredibly long and personal questions.

"I...don't know?"

Her head tilted for a moment, but then she nodded.

"Honesty's a good thing. Okay now onto the more important stuff. You're how old? And are you employed elsewhere or in school?"

"18. I'm in my senior year at high school."

"Right. So mornings would be hard for you during the week. What about after school? Would your parents mind you working late on some nights? Would you be willing to work all day on weekends? I promise the pay is worth it."

Peter had been expecting a parents question, but like always it made him flinch a little.

"I live with my aunt, she'd probably be okay with me working late if my homework's done and I can check in with her on breaks or whatever."

There was empathy, but thankfully no pity, on Darcy's face as she nodded.

"That's not a problem. I generally have my computer or phone with me at all times. You're totally welcome to work on homework or whatever in between rush hours and emergencies. We're a unique coffee shop in that most of our customers are pretty damn self-sufficient. Hence that lovely “syrups and other fixings” bar over there. Our main job is to keep all the possible brews of the day going. We handle a lot of foreign teas and unique coffee blends that I can teach you to make, no problem. We just serve them up and keep the place clean during the day. The customers add what they want to their drinks. Unless it's a special order; but again, I know all of those and can teach you as needed."

Obviously, she could read the apprehension in his face because she kept going.

"It's honestly not nearly as complicated as you would think."

He hesitated only a moment more before nodding.

"Now, for probably the only question that actually matters."

Peter felt his stomach drop somewhere down around his ankles.

"Can you keep secrets? Not from me, but outside The Tea Shop. Could you keep the shop's secrets?"

It wasn't spider-sense that made him tingle, but just plain old human suspicion that made him leery of the question.

"Why?"

Her lips quirked up and she looked satisfied about something.

"We're right across from the Avengers Tower. We serve _all kinds of clientele_. Catch my drift? If you end up bugging someone or blabbing about things you might hear here......Let's just say it would not end well for you."

He could read enough in her tone to know she wasn't threatening him, simply stating a fact. From his point of view, being asked if he could keep a secret was more than a little ridiculous, but looking at the steel behind Darcy's blue eyes made him suddenly realize she was much more than a young woman running a coffee shop. She was guarding something, part of something. She had just implied that she _knew_ the Avengers. Peter couldn't help wanting to be part of that, badly. 

"I can keep a secret."

She nodded, seemingly convinced enough by just his word. Then the bell chimed for the door and Peter turned to watch an unremarkable man in a gray suit step through the door and take the “now hiring” sign out of the window. 

"Excellent choice, Miss Lewis. Make sure he does his paperwork, or it will be on your head."

Peter opened his mouth to say he hadn't been hired yet, but Darcy's squawk of indignation cut him off first.

"Coulson! I haven't even found him an apron yet!"

The man's lips twitched.

"Welcome to real management, Darcy. I'll be back a little later for a fresh cup."

He disappeared back out the door taking the sign with him and Peter nearly flinched when Darcy's eyes zeroed in on his skinny frame.

"How do you feel about red and blue?"

Peter laughed.

**Author's Note:**

> Darcy is the worst interview giver ever.


End file.
